Russia launches massive drone attack on Ukraine, hits Kyiv and Odesa maternity ward
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Russia launched another prolonged drone attack on Ukraine, killing two people and damaging swathes of Kyiv as well as striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, officials said early on Tuesday.
The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault on Ukraine on Monday - part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks in Russia.
At least four people were hospitalised in the capital as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city's 10 districts, city officials said.
"You can't break Ukrainians with terror," Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said in a Telegram post after the attacks.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for tougher sanctions on Russia and air defence to strengthen Ukraine following the attack.
"Russia rejects any meaningful peace efforts and must face new, devastating sanctions. Already now. There is no more time to wait," he said.
Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to military data.
"A difficult night for all of us," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military district, said on Telegram.
"Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorized Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city."
The Kyiv attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighbourhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters' witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky.
Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the early hours of the morning in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known.
Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv's strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.
The attacks come despite pressure from US President Donald Trump on both sides to move towards a resolution on the war.
Moscow and Kyiv returned to negotiations for the first time in more than three years, but outside of an agreement on the exchange of war prisoners, there has been no tangible progress.
In addition to swarms of drones and missiles launched in recent days, Russia has also been advancing further on the ground along the frontline in eastern Ukraine, claiming on Tuesday to take more territory there.
In the southern port of Odesa, a "massive" overnight drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, said on Telegram.
Two men were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured, according to the Ukrainian prosecutors. Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, Kiper added.
He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damage to the facade of several buildings.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war. But thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
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